Through a yellow scented mist he seemed to see his uncle and hear the latter's voice commanding him to drop the carnation. He could not have done it to save himself from destruction. Then the flower was plucked away. "How long have I been asleep?" he asked, suddenly opening his eyes. "You have been across the Styx and back in exactly fifty seconds," Ralph said gravely. "Now you see the effect of that stuff. Wonderfully artistic, isn't it?" Geoffrey gazed at the flower with sickening horror. Ralph seemed to divine this, for he picked it up, sniffed it coolly and placed it in his button-hole. "The evil effect has gone, believe me," he said. "The dose was very small, and I did not mix it with water, which makes a difference." "Still, I don't follow," Geoffrey said. "We know those flowers were cut and arranged by Vera and Marion. It would have been impossible for any one to have entered the dining-room and replaced them with other white flowers. And for anybody to have had the time to impregnate them one by one--oh, it is impossible!" "Not at all, Geoffrey. A mystery is like a conjuring trick--seemingly insoluble, but you know how it is done, and then it becomes bald and commonplace. Suppose the stuff is mixed with water and the mixture placed in a small spray worked by an india-rubber ball. Then one goes into the dining hall for half a minute, gives two or three rapid motions of the hand, and the thing is accomplished." "Yes, that sounds easy. You speak as if you knew who did it." "Yes," Ralph said, with one of his spasmodic smiles, "I do." "You know the author of this dastardly thing. Tell me." "Not yet. I dare not tell you, because you are young and might betray yourself. I could not confide my secret to any one, even the best detective in England. It is only known to Tchigorsky and myself. You shall help me in drawing the net around the miscreants, but you must not ask me that." "And to-night's doings are to remain a secret?" "Of course. Nobody is to know anything. They may conjecture as much as they like. Good heavens, if any one in the house were to know what I have told you to-night, all my work would be undone. You are my instrument, by which I ward off danger without attracting attention to myself. You are the unsuspecting boy, who by sheer good luck foils the enemy. Keep it up, keep it up; for so long as you appear young and unsophisticated, there is less of the deadly danger." CHAPTER XVIII MRS. MONA MAY Geoffrey was slightly puzzled but, like a good soldier, he asked no questions. More and more he was coming to recognize that it was Ralph's to command and his to obey. Doubtless Ralph had some good reason when he treated his nephew like a puppet, but then the puppet was a long way from a fool, and as the days went on, it came home to him with an increasing force that he had a master mind to deal with.